Town Square

City to re-ignite foothills fire-prevention plan

With the Summit Fire near Santa Cruz still a smoldering reminder, Palo Alto Fire Chief Nick Marinaro Wednesday told residents a fire disaster in the Palo Alto foothills is a matter of not "if" but "when."

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Comments (2)

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Posted by Steve Kennedy
a resident of East Palo Alto
on Jul 18, 2008 at 7:47 pm

This is a great article about a great planning document but it doesn't answer these questions:
Why has the draft foothills plan been sitting around for 11 years?
Why is it up for evaluation now? Who has pulled it off the back burner and who voted to put it there to gather dust to begin with?
How obsolete is the plan after 11 years of vegetation growth and 11 years of new home and road construction?
If the plan is approved by the Parks Commission and the City Council late this year, then how long will it take to approve the funding that will impleement the fuel reduction projects identified in the plan? Where will the money come from?
Wouldn't it be amazing if, a hundred years after the last major fire in the Palo Alto hills reduced fuel loads, we decided that we could actually begin doing for Mother Nature, what we haven't been letting Mother Nature do for herself, for all these years?
For a good primer on fire safety and environmental issues please do a google search on "The Cannonball Express", video, fire etc.
Your comments and criticisms are welcome in the GuestBook.

Posted by fireman
a resident of another community
on Jul 19, 2008 at 6:45 am

Mr Kenny. I think the points that you bring up are part of what I have been trying to tell the Public.

Smoke and Mirrors. That has been the foothill fire plan.

Lets see 11 years of dropping the ball on the foothills fire safety.
It is in the book.
I know that one years the excuse was, That he brush trimmer was broken. It needed a replacement part. Well the part had to come from Sweden. So no brush trimming that year. I think they walked it over from sweden. More Later.
So what has the last Fire Chief and the present one been doing for the last 11 years.

Mr Kenny. I think you might have missed my story about the Wildland patrol truck. That had a long history of not working. The NEW replacement truck sat around for 2 1/2 years. Not being used, lost.

Then what would have been a SECOND PALO ALTO HILLS FIRE. WAS ONLY stopped by BLIND LUCK. The Fire burned into a spring and went out.

I was on Duty for the Palo Alto Hills Fire. Went to Lexington that same year.

This event I speak of. As the Wildland truck malfunctioned again and would not spray water. The huge wall of flames went right past us. I watch this and thought OH MY GOD HERE WE GO AGAIN. LOOK WHAT THIS FIRE ADMINISTRATION HAS DONE. Another Palo Alto hills FIRE!

Then the fire started to die down. WE did not stop it. Failed to.
Could have if the equipment worked. There was a natural spring that HAD NOT DRIED UP YET!
I still get sick to my stomach thinking how close WE HAD COME to a HUGE Disaster.
I have much more information on the foothills and other wildland issues.

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